Brenda Ortiz

Students Awarded Prestigious NSF Graduate Research Fellowship

June 4, 2025

Two UC Merced graduate students wearing blue

Two UC Merced graduate students and an alum from the School of Natural Sciences were recently awarded fellowships from the highly competitive National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program. This year, NSF awarded 1,000 GRFP fellowships compared to about 2,000 in previous years...

Ennis Receives Prestigious NIH Fellowship for Research of Biofilms

The National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) awarded Quantitative and Systems Biology graduate student Craig Ennis the Ruth L. Kirschstein...

Anh Diep is UC Merced's winner of this year's Grad Slam and go on to the UC finals May 10.

Anh Diep Wins Grad Slam at UC Merced, Heads to UC Finals

Quantitative and Systems Biology (QSB) graduate student Anh Diep will represent UC Merced at the University of California Grad Slam finals in San Francisco on May 10. At UC Merced’s Grad...

Everyone is invited to cheer on the campus’s Grad Slam semi-finalists as they present their research talks from 1-4 p.m. April 18 in the California Room.

Grad Students Vie for Spot in UC Grad Slam Finals

UC Merced’s Graduate Division will host its Grad Slam competition on April 18 with graduate scholars presenting on topics ranging from Valley Fever immune response and antibiotic...

IH Grad Con to Showcase Student Presentations, Speakers and Interactive Sessions

The Interdisciplinary Humanities (IH) Graduate Group and UC Merced Graduate Division are co-hosting the sixth annual Interdisciplinary Humanities Graduate Student Conference (IH Grad Con) from April...

ice Provost and Graduate Dean Marjorie S. Zatz was selected as one of the Top 35 Women in Higher Education by Diverse: Issues In Higher Education.

‘Diverse’ Names Zatz One of the Nation’s Leading Women in Higher Ed

UC Merced’s Vice Provost and Graduate Dean Marjorie S. Zatz was selected as one of the Top 35 Women in Higher Education in Diverse: Issues In Higher Education’s eighth annual special...

Ph.D. students Craig Ennis and Vicky Espinoza visited Sacramento with Vice Provost and Graduate Dean Marjorie Zatz to speak with lawmakers about the contribution of graduate research to California's development.

Graduate Students Make a Case for Research at Capitol

Two UC Merced Ph.D. students took to the State Capitol yesterday with representatives from the other UC campuses to advocate for the importance of the research being done across California. Craig...

Alumna Kisha McGuire is a program counselor in the Fiat Lux Scholars Program within the campus’s Calvin E. Bright Success Center.

Alumna Staffer Pours Her Passion into Serving Students

Kisha McGuire has discovered an opportunity to do what she loves for an institution she’s grown to care deeply about. McGuire graduated from UC Merced in 2015 with a bachelor’s degree...

Graduate programs in engineering are included in the newest U.S. News rankings of Best Graduate Schools.

Engineering Grad Programs Ranked Among Best in the Nation

UC Merced’s graduate programs in engineering had a strong showing in U.S. News & World Report’s 2020 edition of Best Graduate Schools, released today. Overall, UC Merced’s...

Leaf-cutter ants in the tropical rain forest of Costa Rica carry cut leaves back to their colony.

Study: Tiny ‘Ecosystem Engineers’ Are an Overlooked Source of Carbon Dioxide Emissions

It’s estimated that a leaf-cutter ant colony can strip an average tree of its foliage in a day, and that more than 17 percent of leaf production by plants surrounding a colony goes straight...